All entrepreneurs may crave the freedom to follow through on their own ideas, and the independence to succeed or fail on their own terms, but their visions of success and methods for attaining it can be dramatically different – as different as sharks and dolphins.

Entrepreneurs as Sharks

Traditional entrepreneurs are trained in business school to create businesses or invent products that continually grow to reach benchmarks like obtaining funding, mass distribution, and going public – for the sake of profit. They are strategic rebels who aren’t deeply attached to their creations or the tools they use to create them. Their career goals primarily include making the first million, gaining wealth and power, and then funding further ventures.

Because the grand objective is always rapid and ever-expanding wealth, all too frequently the success of traditional entrepreneurs comes at the expense of higher moral standards. Their ambition can be so powerful, and they can be so singularly focused on their goals, that they may readily discard their colleagues, clients, vendors, partners and even family members if they get in the way of those goals.